Built from curiosity
Before I learned to build brands, I learned to follow my curiosity.
About these imagesThe collages on this page were created with artificial intelligence from real photographs in my personal archive. The memories are real; the compositions are generated.
Chapter 01 · Before the internet
I was born in the eighties
Hi, I’m Sandra, and I was born in the eighties. Yes, the eighties.
I belong to a generation that learned how to wait, how to be bored and how to invent things before the internet could answer everything. I grew up with cassette tapes, photographs you could not retake and whole afternoons spent imagining worlds without a screen in front of me.
Chapter 02 · Curiosity: still running
My first computer lasted one night
My first computer was an Amstrad CPC. I was eight, and my mother and I decided that very first night we were going to program a game.
We did not program the game. We broke the computer.
It had to be replaced the next day, but something had already switched on: the need to touch, test, understand and discover what a machine could do if you learned how to speak its language.
Chapter 03 · Create
I wanted to be an artist. Or an elephant trainer
I was an ordinary student at an ordinary school, but my head was full of things I wanted to create. Whenever someone asked what I wanted to be, the answer kept changing: an artist, a dancer, a writer, a painter… or an elephant trainer.
I did not have a name for it. I only knew I wanted to imagine something that did not exist yet and find a way to make it real.
Chapter 04 · Changing course
Trying is also finding out who you are not
I took my first steps in television and film and studied screen acting. I loved the creative world, but I realized that being in front of the camera was not where I belonged.
Sometimes moving forward is not about getting it right the first time. It is about trying with enough honesty to recognize that your path lies somewhere else.
Chapter 05 · Creativity and technology
Then I discovered design
I discovered graphic design when it was still a profession that was difficult to explain. The internet arrived through a modem that made a terrible noise, and nobody was quite sure what it was for. My first 21-inch monitor was a huge CRT that took up almost the entire desk — and to me, it looked like the future.
I fell in love with design because it brought together two things that had always lived inside me: creativity and technology. I could think, draw, organize, experiment and build something useful at the same time.
Chapter 06 · From complexity to coherence
Curiosity turned into a profession
Over time, I stopped asking only how to make something and started asking why it should exist, who it should serve and what system it needed in order to work.
That curiosity took me from design to brand, from projects to business, from execution to direction, and from tools to teams. I did not move away from creativity; I learned how to connect it with people, decisions and outcomes.
I am still a bit of a geek. I love testing tools, understanding new languages and finding a practical use for every new development. That is why AI excites me: once again, we are standing in new territory where every day brings something to learn, question and turn into possibility.
Chapter 07 · Matter
Ideas leave stains too
Screens have never replaced my need to work with my hands. I have written, painted, created a collection of portable frescoes, exhibited and sold some pieces. Later, I brought that exploration into digital art, especially through portraits of women who inspire me.
I also restore furniture, paint walls, transform spaces and pick up a brush or a drill without thinking twice. For me, making things is a way to stay connected to the physical world — a reminder that ideas can also have texture, weight and paint stains.
Chapter 08 · Living it
Life is designed by living it too
I love adventures, escape rooms and experiences that begin with a little fear and end as a story: skydiving, bungee jumping, swimming with dolphins or discovering an unexpected plan with family and friends.
I am crazy about animals. I love laughing, playing, trying new things and living fully. These days, with a certain amount of common sense too: I have two young children, and I want to have many more stories to tell them.
Chapter 09 · Perspective
Motherhood widened my world
Motherhood has made me deeply happy. I adore my children — laughing with them, playing and watching them build their own way of understanding the world.
I also love working. A lot. I care deeply about what I do, and switching off is not always easy because my mind keeps connecting ideas, imagining projects and asking, “what if…?”. Becoming a mother did not reduce my ambition or curiosity; it gave them a new perspective and an even stronger reason to be thoughtful about how I use my time.
Chapter 10 · A compass, not a weight
The least perfect part of perfectionism
I am responsible, intense and perfectionistic. It sounds good in an interview, but it is not always comfortable to live that way. Sometimes I demand too much of myself, struggle to leave an idea unfinished or find it hard to accept that something can be good without being perfect.
I have learned that judgment is not about polishing everything forever. It is also about knowing what matters, when to listen, when to let go and how to help the people around you do their best work.
I would not be who I am without that drive. Today, I try to use it as a compass rather than a weight.
The close
Nine pieces, one person
Put the nine pieces together. When they all fit, they become one.
Drag each piece into its place. You can also just press it — with a mouse, a finger or the keyboard.
Pieces placed: 0 / 9
Shall we build the next chapter?
I am open to Brand & Creative leadership opportunities where strategy, teams, technology and business need to work as one system.